Newsletter No 2 June 2011

IVM researcher Thijs Etty becomes founding editor-in-chief of a major new peer-reviewed journal, Transnational Environmental Law (TEL), which will be launched by Cambridge University Press in january 2012. Together with co-editor Veerle Heyvaert (London School of Economics), Thijs Etty will be heading an international team of prestigious editors, including Dan Farber (University of California at Berkeley), Joanne Scott (University College London), Cinnamon Carlarne (University of South Carolina), and Jolene Lin (Hong Kong University).

Floods in the Rhine basin

On the 12th of May 2011 Aline te Linde defended her PhD entitled “Rhine at Risk? Impact of climate change on low-probability floods in the Rhine basin and the effectiveness of flood management measures”. Her conclusions were dramatized in the media: “Dutch dikes should be raised by more than 3 m”. Below, you will find a more accurate description of her results.

Using choice experiments to value reductions in flood risk exposure in the Netherlands: advancing existing methodologies

Climate change is expected to increase the probability of flooding in the Netherlands and substantial investments are required to adapt to this changing environment. A choice experiment was conducted to identify the extent to which Dutch citizens are willing to pay for reductions in their exposure to flood risks

Reference materials

The laboratory of IVM is heavily involved in both the preparation and testing of certified reference materials (CRMs), which are used to ensure the quality of analyses performed in European laboratories. CRMs contain a certified level of varying compounds like polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polyfluorinated compounds (PFCs) or other contaminants.